Metal Gear Solid V: The Blank Knight
by thompsonjack321
Summary: My first fanfiction. The story occurs post-game and is based on my own canon. More chapters to come.
1. Chapter 1 - The Phantom

**Chapter One – The Phantom's End**

Snake stared at the broken glass on the floor. It was as if the glass was piercing his heart. He couldn't contain his anger but at the same time, didn't dare look at his face again. It wasn't his face. His eyes were drawn to the loaded pistol on the table. He wasn't a soldier anymore. He was tricked, manipulated, moulded into it by his supposed friends. Big Boss' friends, not his. He looked up and stared at the fragmented mirror, the mirror that revealed his true self to him. Who even was he? Not Snake, not Big Boss, not David. A soldier. That's all he really was. The Soldier reached for the pistol, he had killed hundreds upon hundreds of people with this weapon and it was only right he ended his life with it. Squeezing the trigger, his hands shaking wildly, he lifted the gun towards his head. Once again staring into the mirror he saw this… this phantom, this fake man, this lie. Time to end the myth.

"Boss?" a familiar voice emanated from the idroid and Snake dropped the gun in surprise. He wasn't usually this sloppy with weapons. "I suppose 'Boss' isn't really what I should call you anymore, huh?". "What is it Kaz?" said Snake. "Meet me on the Command Platform Deck, me and Ocelot have something to talk to you about" Snake reloaded the weapon and holstered it, composing himself for the meeting. He walked out of the room, along a corridor before quickly stepping up a flight of stairs and emerged into the blinding daylight of the Seychelles.

Mother Base didn't look like much. A large, winding sequence of oil drilling platforms that was always seemingly under construction. Everything was painted in an official grey colour and the scaffold along the buildings was embroidered by sheets of wood with warning posters slapped on top. However this was the home to one of largest and most dangerous PFs to ever walk the Earth. The Diamond Dogs. A few squads of soldiers were dotted around on each platform, ready to fight at any time (as is the way of the Diamond Dogs) but the central platform was currently mobbed by soldiers all fighting each other into queues, the commanding officers struggling to keep them in line and shouting obscenities at each other. "Hey! I was in front first!" "Shove off; I was here way before you". Snake walked towards the central platform from his quarters to see the rabble of men there and was interrupted by a loud shout "Look! The Boss is coming". Heads turned and almost immediately, the chaos that had been occurring transformed into five, organised rows of quiet soldiers stood, hands by their sides looking dead straight and not even daring to blink. A helicopter landed at the Helipad they were stood in front of. The door slid open and out came Ocelot who tried to help Kaz only to be greeted with a sneer and a light push, signalling him to move.

Revolver 'Shalashaska' Ocelot or Adam (ska) was a mysterious man. He stood at around 6ft with grey hair dressed up in a Wild West inspired outfit. At his belt was his current weapon of choice, the Tornado-6 and around his shoulder was a belt with large shells for this powerful revolver. Ocelot was a rival to Naked Snake back in Tselinoyarsk during Operation Snake Eater but of course Venom already knew this from his hypnotherapy. Ocelot was a former GRU Colonel in command of his own squad when he had defected to the Soviet Union. Now of course no-one really knows who he's working for, but Adam is one person you wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of. Benedict 'Kazuhira' Miller was around the same height as Adam with blonde, messy hair. He wore a black Beret emblazoned with the Diamond Dogs logo and a long beige trench coat disguising his missing limbs. A single crutch helped him to hobble along on his left leg and he stared down at his missing right arm. A wince of pain appeared on his face as presumably flashed back to being ambushed by the parasite unit. Miller had everything taken away from him, only leaving his passion for revenge which sometimes led him to make rash decisions, Quiets possible murder being one of them. Luckily Ocelot keeps him in check during these moments and vice versa. Adam and Kaz didn't like each other much, in fact they pretty much hated each other and they knew they would take different sides in the future but for now Big Boss was the only person keeping them together. Although with the realisation of Big Boss' true identity, he may not be able to keep them together for much longer.

Snake arrived at the helipad to meet with his comrades. "Snake, we've been contacted by Zero-" Ocelot began. "Zero? Tell him thanks but no thanks." Snake began to turn away but Kaz thrust his crutch into Snake's side, he may have been missing limbs but he was still strong. Snake grunted as the crutch was pushed into his stomach. He turned around and looked at Kaz. He limped over to Snake and stared into his only eye, Miller squinted and sneered at him. "I should've known you weren't the real Big Boss… A long time ago" He lowered the crutch down and walked back over to Ocelot. "Miller!" said Ocelot. He sighed and carried on. "Anyway Snake, the job is a big one. Zero wants us to take over the entire Angola-Zaire border in 48 hours for a pay-out of 2 billion GMP" "Is it possible?" quipped Snake. "Definitely, you'll have the full force of Diamond Dogs with you the way through" The squads of soldiers saluted and returned to at-ease. "Give me the run-down" said Snake. Miller snapped out of his angry state and started to explain, "You'll be dropped in at a landing zone east of Bwala Ya Masa, working your way through each outpost clockwise. You will go into each outpost and be followed by a clean-up crew, who will wait on the outpost in tactical positions for 10 minutes. An XOF squad, now led by Zero in its entirety will take over and the clean-up crew will move to your new position. This will happen for every outpost until you eventually reach the end point at Nova Braga Airport. We received Intel last night from an undercover team in Nova Braga that there are over 100 soldiers there. Rogue Coyote know something's about to happen and they're prepared." Miller turned to Ocelot "You will take charge of your own squad, like being in the KGB again; you'll go anti-clockwise to Snake and meet each over in Lufwa valley, where 4 helicopters will pick up Snake, you and your squad and snake's clean-up crew. While the helicopter takes you all over to the airport, we'll commence sequential bombing runs on it to weaken their defences. We predicted it should knock out at least 25% of their forces but you'll have to take on the rest while XOF send a squad from the north in a surprise attack. The minute that XOF squad radios in their status report, the funds will be transferred to our account. Kill them." Snake and Ocelot both turned to Kaz. "Those bastards took everything from us. Its only right we take their best men from them after the job is done." "Now hold on Miller" exclaimed Adam "How is killing one squad going to impact Cipher? We'd need to systematically take out every squad they left in Africa…" Miller had begun to smile. A vengeful smirk. "The clean-up crews will plant hidden C4 in each outpost, undetectable to XOF forces, just like how their identities were hidden to us at the nuclear inspection 9 years ago. Our perfect revenge." Snake and Ocelot stared at each other. They both knew there was no way to quench Millers thirst for revenge so they said nothing. Kaz continued. "Venom, you'll have the help of both Quiet and DD in the field. That should be sufficient. I'll be flying overhead in a support helicopter so we can keep you informed of any incoming forces and a backup squad will be on standby, should you… Anyway, is there anything else you need to know?" Snake looked up and said "When do we leave?" "Right now" replied Kaz.


	2. Chapter 2 -A Bullet Through the Darkness

**Chapter 2 – A Bullet Through the Darkness**

00:00 – Angola-Zaire border

Pitch black, distant stars twinkled like cats eyes staring through a dark night. Snake raised the cigar in front of him, slowly tilting the faint red glowing end as bits of ash dropped down below the helicopter. The dust blew towards a dying tree, branches sprawling all around a staggered cliff edge. Snake threw the rest of the cigar out and tightened the grey blue bandana, Dr Strangelove's final gift had always brought him luck in the field and he didn't doubt the same would occur here. He looked around, Snake's eye began to hurt and colours faded until everything was grey. The only colour Snake could see was red, dried blood on his sneaking suit and his bionic arm, yet another constant reminder of what happened 9 years ago. The shrapnel in his skull was pressing onto his optic nerve causing his vision go fuzzy and a faint ringing noise was pushing him out of consciousness.

Snake was about to fall forward when the voice of Pequod pulled him back into existence. "Boss! We're arriving shortly at the LZ!" Snake's breathing was shallow and staggered; he took a swig of water from his canteen and unhooked himself from the Heli as it started to descend onto the landing zone. He leaped out at around 3 metres above the ground and rolled to break his fall. Venom stood up straight massaging his right shoulder. Snake was never healthy, he was always recovering from some sort of injury but that was how he lived and couldn't remember a time when he was truly in no pain. Snake carried his very best equipment, a GROM-11 rocket launcher; high power, low accuracy; an AN MRS-4, the very best assault rifle (in his opinion) with a long barrel for increased range, optional silencer, extended magazine and 2x scope with an 8x magnifier. Of course snake had a few fultons around his belt, C4 with trigger, grenades, an AM D114LB-9 and his WU S Pistol, a tranquiliser pistol he had been using since the early 60s. He bent down into the swamp picking up mud and rubbing it between his gloved fingers. Snake took a ball of it in his hand and started to rub some onto his face, natural camouflage had never let him down. Two more helicopters touched down in the near distance and two squads jumped down surrounding the landing zone, crouched down with weapons pointing in all directions. Diamond Dog's very best. Ocelot jumped down cursing Africa's swampy terrain as his red boots started to sink into the ground; he pulled his Tornado-6 and loaded a flare bullet into it. He thrust his arm vertically, firing the white flare directly above him and momentarily, a fleet of around 12 helicopters lifted above the horizon flying over Snake's head, then forking off into different directions. These contained his first contact strike force. The plan was to put the border zone into a state of panic allowing Snake and Ocelot to sneak through with the C4 and destroy each outpost. Not as silent as Snake would've liked but he was trained to work in any and all conditions regardless.

Ocelot finally arrive at Snake's location as Snake was studying a map of the region on his iDroid and quickly marking down outpost names on a small notepad. "Make sure you keep to the east side of the region, my squad and I will have the west side sorted" Shalashaska spoke with a slight quiver in his voice "Not scared are you Adam?" taunted Snake. "I haven't been on a mission in the field since I saved your ass back in Cyprus, so I'd thank you not to insult me" Ocelot had completely lost his Russian accent a while ago, he seemed to get his new voice and demeanour from a mashup of Miller and cowboy movies "Remember our final meeting point is in Lufwa valley, then we'll head over to Nova Braga airport" "Got it" Ocelot gave way to a little smile and commanded his squad to follow him as he ran off into the distance. Snake made his final preparations and spoke to the clean-up crew, giving them exact instructions, they were to wait at this location until Snake had cleared the first outpost and given them a signal. After that they would have a good pace of time between them, ensuring they don't give away each other's cover at any outposts. The squad consisted of 7 soldiers, they all wore black fatigues, with armour plates attached at weak spots and the commander wore a red beret while the rest had helmets. Commanders are trusted with the berets, since they managed to get this far without a helmet and still didn't get their heads blown off, as some other soldiers were unfortunate enough to experience. He had the same equipment as Snake whilst the others had varying weapons. Two soldiers carried large M249 machine guns and had thicker armour. Two had small MP5-like weapons and had large machetes affixed to their backs and the final two had a Brennan LRS, a high powered sniper rifle that, with the right person behind it, could slice a tank in half. Quiet, the beautiful but deadly covert operative, would certainly be one of these people. Snake was ready. He thrust his flare gun into the air one last time, firing a green flare to indicate the start of the mission and sprinted off into the darkness.

Snake came to a stop at a cliff on the edge of Bwala Ya Masa and pulled out his int. scope and quickly glanced over the main buildings in the outpost. Snake found about 3 patrolling pairs and two snipers waiting in towers at either end of the outpost. He put the scope away and began to walk along the cliff edge sloping down towards the ground, carefully scanning the ground for claymores. It wouldn't be the first time the PFs tried to catch him out with claymores; he'd stepped on them more times than he cared to admit and was honestly fed up of the injuries. He sprinted towards the nearest building, slamming hard into the wall and wincing a little as he leant on one of his many injuries "Fuck! I'm getting too old for this shit" he whispered. Two men walked past, both armed to the teeth. Rogue Coyote, were on high alert after the bombing runs. Snake grabbed a bottle and flung it at one soldier's head, stunning him. He sprinted towards the other one, thrusting his bionic arm towards his face and instantly knocking him to the ground. Snake flicked 180 degrees towards the first soldier, pulling his head towards him and pushing a knife into his neck. The soldier started to shake as Snake slowly grunted, he was supposed to be interrogating him but realised he wouldn't have much use for new intel after they leave this are of operations. Venom pulled the knife away and put the soldier into a sleeper hold until he was left unconscious. Snake's breathing was shallow; he could see stars as his eyes flickered for a second before shaking his head and pulling out his scope again. A squadron was patrolling at the far end out the outpost and few more single soldiers were scattered around the area, one atop a large cargo ship moored at a rickety, wooden dock. The ship was worn with rust and mud engulfing the bottom half of it whilst at the top, the cabin was ripped in half to reveal a makeshift throne and a crude fire pit quietly flicking embers towards the soldier using it for warmth. Portholes around the ship displayed the wrecked interior of what was once a cargo hold within the ship and broken crates were strewn about the hard, steel hull of this previously magnificent boat.

Snake's iDroid pinged and he saw the Intel team's first sweep of predicted enemy movements. They all coincided with the soldiers Snake saw and he would have no trouble taking them out. To his right, was a large guard tower which Snake swiftly climbed to find a sniper. He hauled himself up into the post and screwed a spare silencer onto the rifle, whilst carefully adjusting the scope magnification. Snake flicked the sniper rifle out and cracked his neck before closing one eye and moving in closer to the scope. He cycled between each target to see if the numbers had changed, they hadn't, and affixed his view to the soldier on top of the cargo ship. He was skinny and had very little armour but carried an AK47. The man wasn't moving; he was just sat there. Snakes mouth opened a little as his eyes screwed up, the man had duct tape tying his hands to the weapon and saw that he was chained to the throne. Something wasn't right. "Kaz!" Snake whispered into the iDroid. "Give me an ID on this guy". A crackling noise confirmed that Miller had heard him as he shuffled around and clacked on a keyboard "he's an MIA Diamond Dog, we spent weeks searching for him but never found any trace. He disappeared during a skull sighting a couple of months back." "So why's he turned up now?" asked Venom shrewdly. " I don't know but I know I don't like these circumstances. Stay alert Snake". He looked around through the scope to see if he could find any more prisoners. None. Snake trained his scope on the boat and saw the glint of a thin wire at the top of one of the steps. Tripwire. He scanned for whatever it was connected to but couldn't see anything. He wasn't about to risk the mission for one prisoner so taking out the int scope he used the microphone to listen in. Just the murmuring of the prisoner, gentle sobbing and… A faint beep was coming from below. He saw a glint of red in the exposed cargo hold and instantly identified it as… "Kaz, there's C4, they've rigged the boat to blow if anyone goes near it". "You can't leave him Snake, try and disarm it.

Snake grunted. He was tired and old. Too old. Of course age never stopped him before; neither did dislocated arms and legs or chunks of shrapnel embedded in his skull or even Kaz's never-ending quest for freedom, the freedom that was always just out of reach for them. He just got on with the job. It was Big Boss's job though, not his yet somehow he felt like it was his duty to finish it. The final mission, after this he was free. Free to do what though? He still had David's face. This was his destiny, it just felt good to think he had a choice for a second.

He leaped out of the tower somersaulting and crashed his shoulder into the ground hard, wincing slightly. He drove through the pain and sprinted to the nearest shack, pistol in hand. The Delta-114, was the most devastating pistol the R&D team had churned out yet and even though Snake was used to carrying something automatic, he felt incredibly safe with it in his hand. He poked his head round to see one soldier spit on the ground and reload his rifle. Simple target, no helmet, stationary, freshly trained. Nothing could've prepared him for what happened next. Snake darted to the next closest cover before sprinting full force at the unsuspecting soldier, thrusting him up into the sky, smashing him into the wooden pole he was standing beside and leaving him in a crumpled, winded slump on the floor. Snake pushed the butt of the gun into his head and whispered into his ear, "Shout, and you'll be at the bottom of that cholera infested river faster than you can blink. So for your sake keep your mouth shut, eyes wide open and give me the detonator for that C4" The soldier gulped and shaking wildly, revealed the detonator in his jacket pocket. Snake snatched it, smiled and said "Goodnight", thrusting his left foot into the soldier's skull against the pole cracking it with satisfying ease, like a coconut. Venom stepped carefully over the first wire that protected the rotting dock and crawled over to the exposed hull. He slowly reached inside and pulled the C4 towards him, strapping it to his chest. Snake was used to gutsy moves but he wasn't really sure where this one was going. He bit the wire off so as not to disconnect it fully and cause it to detonate, luckily there was no timer and if he was caught he'd have a bargaining tool. On the other hand these soldiers usually shot first and asked questions later but hopefully they'd notice their missing explosives and give Snake a chance to think. He leaped up grunting, as he climbed the unstable shell of the ship and hauled himself onto the top platform. The prisoner hadn't heard him and with the finger strapped to the trigger, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to startle him. Snake hissed to get his attention, the prisoner's ears twitched and he span around breathing rapidly. Blood was dried to the side of his face and he was blind in one eye. His dark medium length hair was somewhat matted to the side of his face from a mixture of both blood and sweat, no doubt tears were involved too. He wore a blue jumpsuit, standard for prisoners Rogue Coyote took along with a red and white striped armband; this signified their lack of importance.

He was expendable.

Snake moved forward and ripped the gag off his face. The prisoner looked at him and cried quietly as Venom cut the tape that was fusing his hands to the weapon. He put his finger to his lips and the prisoner nodded and went limp while Snake attached a Fulton to his hips. He let the balloon inflate and span around quickly scanning to find any soldiers that had noticed. One pointed their gun up into the air and was about to shout until a bullet passed through his jaw, leaving his mouth hanging wide open as he dropped lifelessly to the muddy ground.

The balloon propelled up past the clouds and Snake lay prone, ready for the onslaught that was probably about to be unleashed. But no. Still, silent, the buzz of insects and coughs of faraway soldiers echoed. He disembarked the creaking boat and sprinted to the other side of the outpost. A few soldiers were sat warming themselves up around a small fire, Snake figured the clean-up crew could probably take care of them and slinked through two shacks to avoid them. He came out and climbed a small plateau a few metres above the outpost, staring back at the scene. Stars sparkled and glittered amongst the midnight blue sky and a full moon shone down. "3 Soldiers around a campfire at the north of the checkpoint, I've got the C4 strapped to me as a last resort. Alert the clean-up crew". Kaz's voice crackled "Copy that" and buzzed out of existence. Venom took one last deep breath and sprinted north.


End file.
